The Oxford Horse Barn, built in 1887, is located near

Laramie, Wyoming Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was estimated 32,711 in 2019, making it the third-largest city in Wyoming after Cheyenne and Casper. Located on the Laramie River in southeastern ...

Albany County, Wyoming Albany County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 37,066. Its county seat is Laramie, the site of the University of Wyoming. Its south border lies on the northern Colorado state ...

. It is one of the oldest and largest existing barns in Albany County. The barn in an excellent example of

vernacular architecture Vernacular architecture is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. This category encompasses a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, bo ...

as influenced by the English cattle and horse ranchers which immigrated to the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

History

The Oxford horse ranch was one of the earliest in the area, being established in the 1870s by Pete Johnson. The ranch was later sold to two Scottish gentlemen named Whitehouse and Stokes. It was under these owners that the ranch gained international recognitions as breeders of pedigreed horses, at times running up to 3,000 head. The Oxford Horse Barn provides important evidence the transplantation of the English upper class thoroughbred horse culture to the Rocky Mountain west and more specifically, Wyoming. The Oxford horse barn also played an important role in local history. Most notably it is associated with the name of Axel Palmer, who worked at and later became part owner of the then Whitehouse Ranch on which the barn is located. Palmer trained horses and used the barn loft as a kind of obstacle course for breaking teams.

Architecture and construction

The Oxford House Barn is a massive log

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G. ...

measuring 158 feet 8 inches long and fifty feet wide. The structure has a distinctive earthen ramp on the back, used for providing wagon access to the

loft A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to large ...

, and a strict bilateral symmetry of plan and facade. Resting on a sandstone foundation, the barn is constructed of horizontal squared logs mortised into vertical posts at exact 17 foot intervals, which divides the long facade visually into nine equal sections. This construction technique in North America has many names but most common is piece sur piece. Massive ground level sliding doors with original hardware are located in the gable ends and also in the middle and end sections of the long facades. The rigid, tripartite, bilateral symmetry of the barn justifies considering it an agricultural manifestation of the "Georgian vernacular" tradition of England and the eastern U.S.

References

External links

Barn at Oxford Horse Ranch
at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office {{NRHP in Albany County, Wyoming Barns on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming National Register of Historic Places in Albany County, Wyoming Log buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming Buildings and structures in Laramie, Wyoming